Man who attacked Brighouse garage apprentice jailed for 18 months

A judge was told that Liam Lalu had seen red when he was told about a problem with a tyre which had been fitted to a wheel of his partner’s car earlier that day.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Lalu and another man turned up at the garage premises in a van and he immediately demanded to know who had fitted the tyre.

When the 17-year-old apprentice said it was him Lalu began punching him to the face before headbutting him.

The complainant said he was hit more than 10 times before Lalu, who was wearing his work boots, kicked his legs from under him and began stamping on the teenager’s arms.

When the garage owner intervened Lalu and the other man turned their attention to him and he was also punched.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said the teenager’s injuries included bruising to his ribs and a broken left forearm.

Lalu, of Heysham Drive, Bradford, was known to the garage owner and after his arrest last year he declined to answer questions during his police interview.

But the court heard that when his case came before the magistrates this year he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to the teenage apprentice and assaulting the garage owner.

Barrister Ian Hudson, for Lalu, said his client was not a man of violence, but at the time of the incident he was suffering from stress related to his work and his relationship.

Mr Hudson conceded that Lalu had gone round to the garage “seeing red” and in a fit of anger.

The Recorder of Bradford Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said Lalu had gone to garage after the red mist had descended.

“A minute may not sound like a long time, but this was, I am satisfied, a sustained outpouring of anger and violence,” the judge told Lalu.

“This court doesn’t know what got into you.”

The judge indicated that he was reducing Lalu’s jail term because of his guilty pleas and the “outrageous delay” in the case coming before the courts.

“Please think before you act next time,” he told Lalu.